Drawing From Your Own Experiences To Write Well In Primary School Compositions

Lots of students dislike writing because they think it’s boring. They also complain that they cannot write fantasy stories and the same topics are tested over and over again. While it’s true that there are common topics and students have to write about what is likely to happen in real life, there are still ways to make writing one’s composition interesting by using one’s own experiences.

Students can do one of the following effectively in compositions:

1. Identify and describe an object you like or dislike

2. Identify and describe someone you like or dislike

3. Identify and describe your own interests

Do you have a clearer idea of how these 3 tips can be applied to spice up your writing now?

To brainstorm for these ideas, you can do up a mindmap to make sure you describe your experiences and the object in question in great detail.

For more reluctant writers, you can use your parent’s phone to record down your ideas and then write them down. At this stage, don’t be afraid of making mistakes—concentrate on generating ideas! You can decide on which phrases help push the plot forward later on.

After generating these ideas, see where you can fit them into the part of the plan. You don’t need to have too much detail when describing something, but being able to use some of the ideas you have generated makes writing less intimidating.

In every single story, there is always room for you to make it interesting. The next time you receive your composition topic, don’t groan! Think about how you can make it interesting for yourself, and start planning! Once you make it fun for yourself, what seems like a chore is actually a breeze.

Have you used your own experiences when writing your own composition? Let us know in the comments!

Ms. Xie is an English Teacher at Lil’ but Mighty. Her best subject has always been English and she's been writing ever since she could hold a pen. Her first book, Dragonhearted, was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award in 2014 and published in 2016. It was also shortlisted for the Singapore Book Awards in 2017. She also likes hugging fat cats. The fatter they are, the better.